Volume 8, Number 3
Oct 1995

French Group Works to Save Documents of the Past & Future

Reprinted from the Abbey Newsletter, September 1995, p. 65.

In late 1988, the nonprofit association Sauver les Docu-ments en Peril des Bibliothèques Françaises (Save the Endangered Documents in French Libraries) was founded by two American and two French citizens. Recognized by the Fondation de France, it has since grown to a membership of approximately 700, including a number of scholars from other European countries, Canada and the United States, who prize French libraries and archives for their own research.

It is our purpose to defend mankind's perhaps most vital cultural and intellectual heritage against the ravages of time, neglect and the self-destruction of essential documents printed, handwritten or drawn on acidic paper, as has been the custom since the mid-nineteenth century when wood pulp widely replaced cotton, linen or hemp in papermaking.

The problem is universal. As in France, so worldwide, one quarter to one third of the volumes stored in the great libraries are embrittled to the point of disappearance within the short or medium term. The disaster zone extends to miles of national, regional, parliamentary, executive, diplomatic, academic, historical, architectural and other archives. Along with these irreplaceable witnesses of our social, political and cultural history, our collective memory will fade into oblivion or, worse, into vague and thus misleading recollection.

Electronic cure-all advocates tend to confuse documentation and scholarship and, on a less exalted plane, information and reading. Both elements are useful in their own fields, the one not to be sacrificed to the other. Let us nevertheless mention two among several objections to unmitigated "high tech." On the practical level, what if, before disaster struck, Kobe had transferred all of its archives onto electronic media? On the lighter side, how to enjoy a computerized novel, poetry collection, biography or essay while reclining, so to speak, under the old apple tree?

We are relating facts Americans are no doubt aware of, because in America extensive work has long since led to a careful examination of (alas still universally inconclusive) restoration processes and, above all, to the implementation of effective prevention measures. In 1990, a Federal law was approved regarding the use of "acid free permanent paper" for "Federal records, books, and publications of enduring value," and the American publishing industry now largely prints on such paper. None of this has come about without long and costly campaigns.

Subsisting on very modest membership dues alone, we are thereby--to our great advantage and growing prestige--beholden to none on either the official or commercial level. By this time we have begun seriously and effectively to prevail.

Having admitted initially that they knew nothing of the problem, ever more legislators of both Chambers and all parties are now listening to us. Two bills have been introduced at our initiative at the Assemblée Nationale: one by the entire Socialist Group and its allies; another by a multipartisan (center and right-wing) coalition specifically formed for the issue at hand. Both bills are identical; both preambles, moreover, quote literally from the association mailing which triggered the legislative initiative.

We are in constant personal touch with a growing number of interested Deputies and Senators who continue to challenge the government by way of inquiries published in the Journal Officiel. Such action, along with our own, will accelerate and become more effective once the procrastination inherent in presidential campaigns and their aftermath comes to an end.

We have always recognized that prevention alone ("stopping the hemorrhage") was not the complete solution, and have monitored all scientific developments in deacidification promising (still problematic!) simultaneous strengthening of embrittled documents.

On books loaned for the purpose by the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, and with IBM laboratory assistance, we have tested the defunct Lithium (FMC) process. Deacidification results were positive; not so the mechanical strengthening requisite for archives and libraies to return treated documents to circulation. We also granted an attentive hearing to Union Carbide. Both firms later withdrew from the market.

Yet, progress is under way at the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt and at the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig. While the latter deacidifies at this date 200,000 volumes per year, nothing credible has yet been heard of strengthening.

The British Library is experimenting with polymerization by gamma rays, to great advantage and equally great disadvantage, not the least of which is its cost.

It is needless to mention the number of universities, libraries and other institutions, state or privately owned, in America which work untiringly to solve the twin preservation problems of restoration and prevention.

While prevention--the use of acid free paper--is an option now available, curing the acid cancer corroding our documents, not just staying its course, is still only a strong prospect for the future. Should we, though, refrain from using the admittedly less than totally effective treatments now at our disposal, awaiting tomorrow's scientific breakthrough? Would a physician let his patient glide toward unchallenged death because the definitive remedy remains to be discovered?

Besides working in almost day-to-day liaison with mem-bers of the legislature and the civil service and informing the general public, we are carrying on an intensive persuasion campaign addressing the publishing industry, printers, librarians, booksellers, scholars, writers and artists. Whenever possible, we set up round-table discussions with such groups, separately or jointly.

Since the very beginning we have made it a point to be present (within our limited means) at patrimonial events such as the important annual book fair at the ex-Bibliothèque Nationale and, as this year, at the international Salon du Livre, a normally expensive event for exhibitors. To our great pride, however, we have been offered free space for screening, as many times before, the American documentary Slow Fires, followed by a high-caliber panel discussion group.

Other invitations have been issued from ARTE (the European cultural TV chain) and, for the second time, from the national radio station France Culture.

For the seventh year we are holding a series of public lectures offered by some of the country's foremost writers, historians, artists and curators. In recognition of our work, we are this year the guests of the French Senate at an auditorium of the Palais du Luxembourg. Relevant monthly visits with our members to museums, archives, libraries, laboratories, etc., have become traditional.

Much more could be achieved, and much faster, on every level and in every field, were it not for lack of finance. One instance among others: an invitation from IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) to join and participate in their world-wide, influential, often decisive meetings had to be declined. Even travel within French borders is a budgetary problem, unless we have recourse, as frequently happens, to our own pockets, not wishing to miss a chance to lecture, to screen Slow Fires or to set up an information booth in the provinces. This also applies to European gatherings of experts.

Whatever we have achieved so far was done without office space or even a part-time secretariat. We have no truly wealthy members, let alone benefactors, on the American scale; and the proceeds from membership fees plus a few minor gifts do not allow us to envisage either office space or secretarial help. A notable exception: the spontaneous gift, in 1990, of $25,000 from The Florence Gould Foundation, safely invested ever since as a security reserve, in view of our somewhat precarious hand-to-mouth existence.

We are indeed afraid of choking on our very success and, horresco referens, have for some time found it necessary to cur-tail our membership drive. Yet our numbers keep increasing as by osmosis.

While we in no way intend to act as a "policial pressure group," let us recall again that, in this country, virtually all cultural and academic activity is incorporated or at least subsidized through such bodies as the Ministries of Culture, Education, or Research. We have succeeded in opening some of those doors and the immediate challenge is to keep them from falling shut. In other words, in the course of the coming three years we must build a lasting structure on the ground we have gained.

Note: The September Newsletter of the Commission for Preservation and Access reports the introduction and some of the wording and history of the permanent paper bills now before the French National Assembly. It credits the Association Sauver les Documents for spearheading the initiative, and says that it is hoped that the Socialist and Conservative bills will be discussed by late 1995 or early 1996.-Ed